I'm a Mathematician

"I'm not a mathematician but these numbers speak for themselves..." How many posts and articles have you seen that begin this way? And how many times have you been encouraged to believe what the author says, as if that were truly what "infallible" numbers decreed?

• The richest 10% pay over 50% of the taxes, therefore the rich pay too much.
• If you self-publish you'll earn as much from 20 sales as you would from 200 traditionally published sales, therefore you'll earn more by self-publishing.
• The Bible tells us people's ages when they died, therefore we can work out the age of the earth.

Of course, if three people each pay 10% in taxes, two of whom earn ten cents a day, and one earns $10,000 per day, then one who earns more will pay a long way over 50% of the total taxes, not because they're paying too much, but because the other two aren't earning enough to live on. Context changes everything.

When it comes to publishing, if you can't sell your self-published books you'll earn nothing. Perhaps being traditionally published is what would give you the external validation necessary to make your books sell.

And then there's my faith and the age of the world. But there's ages and "ages," and the intricacies of translation and language when we read the Bible. (And there's science too!)

As for me, I am a mathematician, and as soon as anyone says the numbers speak for themselves I find myself asking "who's speaking?" 'cause numbers don't talk.